The Young man in Online Romance (13): 

Zhou Qinghao hurried out, and the secretary quickly reported this to Zhou Lin.

Zhou Lin asked, “Where did Zhou Qinghao go?”

The secretary replied, “Not sure.”

“How come you people are never sure about anything?” Zhou Lin was a little displeased.

Zhou Lin’s secretary was also unhappy. They came to work at Qida Technology, not to act as spies. Asking them to keep tabs on Zhou Qinghao was simply not part of their job.

“I wonder how much of a spell that guy Zhou Qinghao has cast on Grandpa…” Zhou Lin thought of how the old man had always favored Zhou Qinghao. When all the grandchildren came of age, Zhou Qinghao received the most, which made Zhou Lin even more resentful.

In truth, the reason the old man gave Zhou Qinghao more was simply because his second son had only Zhou Qinghao as a child, whereas his eldest son had five children in total.

When the grandchildren came of age, he would divide some assets among them. If Zhou Qinghao got the same amount as Zhou Lin, then the eldest son’s family would end up with five times what the second son’s family got.

The more Zhou Lin thought about it, the angrier he became. He told his secretary to find out what Zhou Qinghao was up to and to spread around the company that Zhou Qinghao was in an online romance.

The secretary thought, “…Does that even need spreading? Everyone in the company already knows.”

As for finding out Zhou Qinghao’s movements—once again, Zhou Lin was asking him to do something completely outside his job description.

After giving Zhou Qinghao the new technology, Gu Juntian started working on another new idea he had recently come up with.

As he was writing, he suddenly thought of something.

Would constantly producing new technology make people suspicious? Should he come up with a reason?

Forget it—if anyone asked, he would just say he was a genius.

A fulfilling day passed, and at 6 p.m., Gu Juntian logged into the game on time.

Qingtian Bairi still wasn’t online, but everyone who had gotten the Dragon Scale set had already contacted him.

Gu Juntian met with the last few sellers, bought the final two pieces, and finally completed the Dragon Scale set.

He wanted to give the set to Zhou Qinghao, but Zhou wasn’t online yet… Thinking for a moment, Gu Juntian decided to edit together footage from yesterday’s hidden dungeon run and post it on the forum. He also checked the revenue from his previous videos.

From posting videos, he had gradually made over twenty thousand yuan—pretty decent income.

Most of the comments praised his skill and leadership, but some accused him of being obsessed with money, charging for “just a video.”

Some even claimed he wasn’t a rich kid at all, just a broke nobody.

Gu Juntian didn’t care about such comments. If he charged for a video, he was going to charge.

When his new video finally passed review and went live, Gu Juntian was in a good mood.

Yesterday’s incident with Little Lamb had been popular enough that his new video should attract plenty of views.

As soon as he returned to the game, he saw Zhou Qinghao log in.

“Aqing!” Gu Juntian had his character perform a hug animation toward Zhou.

Zhou knew that word of his and Gu Juntian’s relationship had already spread throughout the entire company.

At this moment, someone might very well be watching them.

A screenshot of Tiandi hugging his character could be all over the company by tomorrow.

During the day, he’d been too busy patching work issues to think about it, but now, the delayed embarrassment hit him.

Still, seeing Tiandi’s face up close, he suddenly felt at ease.

Since everyone already knew, he might as well do whatever he wanted, without caring about others’ opinions.

He worked hard enough already—surely he was allowed some entertainment.

Thinking this, Zhou controlled his character to hug Gu Juntian back.

Once again, Gu Juntian felt the disappointment that this holographic game had no physical sensation.

In his lifetime, he swore, he would make a truly tactile holographic game.

“Aqing,” Gu said, “let’s go explore the new map.” Yesterday, Zhou had said he wanted to, but they’d ended up running the hidden dungeon instead.

“Alright,” Zhou agreed.

Gu took Zhou to the newly unlocked map in Cultivation: Phoenix Perch Secret Realm.

This area required a certain cultivation level to enter, plus a key.

Keys could be obtained from monsters in the nearby parasol tree forest or purchased in the shop for 9.9 yuan each. Not expensive, but since they were single-use, it was definitely a money-maker.

“Qida Technology really knows how to make money,” Gu remarked. “Which is good—profitable companies can give me more money.”

“True.” Zhou smiled, bought two keys, and handed one to Gu.

Gu, realizing Zhou had beaten him to paying, thought, “…Fine. I’ve already spent plenty of Zhou’s money—9.9 yuan doesn’t matter.”

They entered the secret realm together, their feather-shaped keys disappearing as the map unfolded before them.

Because of the entry restrictions, the place wasn’t crowded. The scenery was beautiful—perfect for a date.

Seeing the realistic parasol tree forest and the sea of fiery red flowers, Gu felt in high spirits. He turned to Zhou. “Aqing, I have something for you.”

Gu selected the Dragon Scale set and clicked “gift.”

When Zhou saw the set from Tiandi, he felt something was off.

Tiandi valued the game greatly and strove to be one of its strongest players.

Why would someone like that give away the Dragon Bloodline and Dragon Scale set?

How much money was he expecting in return?

No—knowing Tiandi, any money he got would be spent in-game or on gifts for streamers like Little Lamb. In other words, if he wanted money from Zhou, it would be for things like the Dragon Scale set.

And now, he was just giving it away?

What exactly was Tiandi up to?

Uneasy, Zhou still accepted the gift and asked, “Why give me the Dragon Scale set?”

“Because I like you,” Gu said earnestly. “I want to give you the best.”

Zhou felt even more unsettled. “Great Emperor, my dad just sent me some spending money. Let me transfer you some.”

“No need. My cash flow is fine—I’m not short on money,” Gu replied.

He didn’t even want money—what did he want then?

“Aqing…” Sensing the good mood, Gu recited a few romantic lines he’d memorized.

His voice was deep and pleasant.

Zhou felt his ears tingle pleasantly and stopped worrying about Tiandi’s motives.

Even if Tiandi had a scheme, he could deal with it when it came.

Thinking this, Zhou asked, “Great Emperor, since I’m your boyfriend, can I make a request?”

“Of course,” Gu said.

“Then you can’t have any more contact with Little Lamb, or tip any good-looking streamers like him.”

“No problem,” Gu agreed immediately.

He had no time for streams and no intention of dealing with Little Lamb again.

Zhou studied him for a long while.

Did Tiandi really like him?

Whatever the case, he decided to believe it.

He really did like Tiandi’s face and voice.

Thinking this, Zhou had his character “kiss” Gu’s.

No one else was around, so no players saw it.

But at Qida Technology, many people were watching Zhou.

When they saw his character kiss Tiandi’s, they gasped.

They all recognized Tiandi—not only was he online constantly, but he had also spent a lot of money in-game.

They assumed he was some well-off shut-in.

Such people, in their experience, were generally useless.

They hadn’t expected their boss to like someone like that.

“Never thought the boss was like this in private.”

“Makes him seem more down-to-earth.”

“Tiandi’s really nice to him—gave him the Dragon Scale set and Dragon Bloodline. Those are worth a lot.”

“Their relationship looks sweet.”

…

But then someone said, “It’s just in-game romance—maybe the boss is just toying with him.”

True enough… As one of the Zhou heirs, he might just be playing around.

Most people at Qida Technology thought this—except Zhou Lin.

He knew that Zhou Qinghao had actually given Tiandi a lot of money in private.

Zhou was overly sheltered by his parents and had never been in a relationship, making him very naïve.

He was the type of rich, innocent young master who could be talked into anything by a few sweet words from a poor guy.

Now, Tiandi had him hooked.

Zhou Lin wondered how Zhou would feel when he learned Tiandi was actually a fat, ugly shut-in.

He looked at the photos he had gathered of Tiandi.

They’d been taken when Tiandi’s parents passed away.

In them, Tiandi’s face was covered in acne, he weighed about two hundred pounds, his hair was long and messy, and he wore a white T-shirt with yellowed cuffs—just looking at it was revolting.

Comparing the photo to the in-game screenshot of the two characters kissing, Zhou Lin felt satisfied.

So, early the next morning, when he ran into Zhou Qinghao, he said with a smirk, “Zhou Qinghao, I hear you have a boyfriend now? Congratulations—may you be together forever.”

Zhou could see the malice in Zhou Lin’s tone.

But he didn’t care, and smiled. “Thanks.”